Vivian Cheruiyot comes face to face with red-hot Aprot

Kenya’s road to the Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games starts in earnest Thursday morning with the bruising trials at Eldoret’s Kipchoge Keino Stadium expected to produce major shocks.

Interesting battle lines have been drawn with seasoned stars facing upstarts for the few slots available to the August 4-21 Games in what is arguably the world’s most competitive national athletics championship.

Two major straight finals are lined up on Day One of the two-day competition on Thursday - the women’s 10,000 metres (10:00am) and men’s 5,000 metres (3:30pm).

The first two in each event in the championship sponsored by Safaricom will gain automatic tickets to Rio with the third slot reserved for selectors to debate on.

A bruising duel between three-time World 10,000m champion Vivian Cheruiyot and Africa’s fastest woman over the distance this season Alice Aprot promises a thrilling curtain raiser.

Aprot has just shaken off the jet-lag from her trip to Durban where she was crowned the new Africa champion over the distance last week.

Cheruiyot, a seasoned campaigner with an Olympic bronze medal from 2012 London Games, takes on on-form Aprot, who is fresh from a new personal best of 30:26.94 set at the just concluded African Athletics Championships.

“I thank God for helping me improve on my career each day. After the African Games performance I think my form is very much promising,” Aprot said on Tuesday evening.

Former World champion Linet Masai, Olympic silver medallist Sally Kipyego and her US-based colleague Betsy Saina along with Sally Kaptich are among the other big names also lined up for the 10:00am race.

Cheruiyot has not competed widely since winning her third title at last year’s IAAF World Championships in Beijing and is heavy favourite to book the ticket along with Aprot.

SECOND FINAL

The second final will be the men’s 5,000m at 3:30pm where two superstars, world cross country and half marathon champion Geoffrey Kamworor and Bedan Karoki, silver medallist at the two meets behind Kamworor, will launch their bid to double.

They will face seasoned campaigners on the Diamond League circuit, Thomas Longosiwa, the Olympic bronze medallist over the distance, Edwin Soi and Isaiah Koech.

Kamworor and Karoki will be looking to double in the 10,000m and 5,000m and will be happy that organisers changed the programme which initially had the two events on the same day.

There will also be straight finals in the women’s and men’s 100m (2:10pm and 2:20pm, respectively) along with the men’s high jump (1:15pm) where newly-crowned Africa champion Mathew Sawe will battle with Nicamor Cheruiyot, Amos Kipsang and Edwin Too.

On the programme is also the men’s 110m hurdles final (2:00pm) and women’s 100m hurdles (1:40pm).